Why last year uses 去 and not 先

Hi, just wondering why the kanji for last year is 去年 while the other vocab use 先 instead of the 去.
Is this just an exception or is there more vocab that uses 去 ??

3 Likes

先年 is a word that means “a few years ago,” similar to 先日 meaning “a few days ago.”

Other words with 去 exist, like 去月, but I’ve never really seen them in use.

昨年 also exists for “last year,” but it’s a more formal-sounding word than 去年.

9 Likes

To be honest, if you translate it literally in English, the nuance still fits.

“He got a job past year” is the year before this one
“He got a job in a previous year” is not necessarily last year, but probably means it was a few years ago, or it would have been specified.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.